Chad Henne can point to Packers’ win as highlight of a poor season

When you look back on the Dolphins’ 2010 season – especially now, with the playoffs winding down and a handful of superior teams emerging – it’s hard to argue with the idea that their 23-20 overtime win at Green Bay back in Week 6 was the most impressive of their seven victories.

And if Chad Henne wanted to put together a highlight reel of his second season as Miami’s starter, that game would be featured prominently.

Henne was remarkably efficient that day, completing 23-of-39 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. It was one of two games all season he wasn’t sacked, though, to be fair, Packers sack specialist Clay Matthews sat out the game with a hamstring injury. The negative? He couldn’t get the Dolphins into the end zone, leading just two TD drives as Miami settled for four Dan Carpenter field goals.

Miami fell behind 10-7 early in the second quarter when Aaron Rodgers hit Greg Jennings for an 86-yard TD pass behind Vontae Davis. That could have been a turning point, but Henne drove the Dolphins to a pair of field goals that gave them a 13-10 lead going to the fourth quarter. After the Packers tied it with just under 10 minutes left, Henne engineered a seven-play, 51-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard TD pass to Anthony Fasano.

The Dolphin defense, so stout all season, couldn’t stop Rodgers down the stretch, as he brought Green Bay back once again, using his many offensive weapons to drive 69 yards in 12 plays to a tying score.

Neither team was able to score on its first possession of overtime. Then the Dolphins got the ball back at their own 48 and, with Henne completing one pass to Davone Bess for 8 yards and Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown rushing five times for another 18, Miami reached the Green Bay 26 before Dan Carpenter hit a 44-yard field goal for the win. Miami rushed for 150 yards that day, second only to a 186-yard performance at Oakland, which also featured a strong performance by Henne.

The victory didn’t save Miami’s season, but it was a nice bounceback after the Dolphins had lost back-to-back home games to the Jets and Patriots. Had game officials not negated a lost Ben Roethlisberger fumble at the goal line that Miami recovered in the closing minutes a week later, it might have triggered a three-game win streak, as the Dolphins rebounded from that controversial 23-22 loss to the Steelers with a 22-14 win at Cincinnati.

Back then, there seemed to be no question that Henne was on his way to becoming a solid quarterback. But when his game went south and Miami lost six of its last nine, the faith in his future evaporated, leaving the Dolphins with huge questions about where to turn next at the position.

The Packers, of course, went in the opposite direction, winning their next four and seven of their next 10 to earn a wild-card playoff berth, then beating both Philadelphia and Atlanta on the road to reach the NFC Championship Game. By far the biggest difference between the teams is the play of their quarterbacks. Put Rodgers in a Miami uniform and Henne in Green Bay and it isn’t hard to imagine a complete flip-flop in results.